A Nasty Shock
by SarcasticSam
Summary: Antonia Stark went to SHEILD's HQ expecting to get bored out of her mind, but instead finds that there is a new villian that wants her dead. Same old, same old. She can name at least 50 people that want her dead from the top of her head. But this guy, he has something she'll go to the ends of the world to protect. Except, this something is a man, and is dead.
1. Chapter 1

A tall man with broad shoulders, dirty blond hair, and striking green eyes is studying a short brunette woman in a blood red, floor length dress, who is holding a flute of champagne.

The pair, lurking in the shadows, just finished giving toasts and thanking everybody for coming to celebrate Antonia Stark's 21st birthday.

The man, James Bradford, was sweating. He was nervous as _fuck._ And for good reason, he was planning on proposing to his girlfriend, the woman in the red dress, Antonia Stark, before the night was over.

They have only been dating for two and a half years, but have been best friends for five.

He was fidgeting all over the place, pulling on his collar, loosening the bow tie, and _why was it so fucking hot in here?_

"Are you okay, James?"

His eyes snapped to Antonia's face at the sound of her angelic voice. He took in her beauty; the impossibly long and dark eyelashes, framing her doe-like eyes; the ruby red lips, pulled into a small smile, showing off her brilliantly white teeth; the high cheek bones and delicate bone structure.

_God,_ he wanted to kiss her right there and take her home, away from the greedy gazes of the paparazzi and fake smiles of the people who claim to be _friends._ As if.

He shook the thoughts out of his head and answered his, hopefully, soon-to-be fiancé.

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?" He smiled, and grabbed her right hand, bringing it up to his lips to press a gentle kiss to the palm of her small, gloved hand.

She beamed up at him, pleased with such a small motion, but one he did at least once a day, every day since they started dating, and some days before.

"I love you."

Only three words, but every time they were spoken by this particular woman, always managed to make his heart skip a beat.

He leaned down to press his lips to her soft, full ones. It was chaste, barely touching, but still made both of them smile.

"Dance with me." He held his hand out and she placed her hand in it.

He led her to the center of the dance floor, people shuffling out of the way and the paparazzi pushing and shoving, trying to get a good picture of the happy couple.

He put his large hand on her waist, and she put hers on his shoulder.

They danced. Barely noticing the flashing of cameras, or random questions shouted by the paparazzi, they danced.

Suddenly, the blonde stopped and pulled a little box out of his pocket, and knelt down on one knee.

The brunette gasped; her hand flying to her throat in surprise.

"Antonia Stark, I've loved you from the first day I ever set eyes on you. You were so beautiful, reading a mechanics book, with your hair in a messy ponytail, a pencil behind your ear, and your ridiculously dorky and adorable glasses. I knew from that moment that I wanted to be with you forever, and now I have the opportunity to do just that. I promise to love you always and forever, Antonia, will you do me the extraordinary honor of being my wife?" He opened the box to show a silver ring with a medium sized diamond, with small rubies surrounding it.

Ignoring the shocked exclamations of the guests, Antonia responds, her eyes overflowing with tears.

"Yes," she choked out. "Of course I'll –"

But no one finds out what she'll do, as she was cut off with the sound of an explosion and gunfire.

Antonia gets thrown to the ground as people scream and run in all directions like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Antonia!" She hears James yell, panic in his voice.

Choking on the smoke, Antonia coughs, her throat too clogged up to answer.

She stills as a shadow falls over her. Looking up, she expects to see James' face, twisted in relief, and him helping her up, and making a run for it. Instead, she sees a tall man with dark hair, cold eyes, and an evil grin, like the ones you only see in old cartoons.

He grabbed her arm in an iron grip and wrenches her off the ground, but Antonia has actually paid attention to the self-defense classes James made her take, along with karate, and boxing, and jujitsu, and tae kwon do, and judo, and she's smart enough to know that even though she knows all that, this guy is 275 pounds of raw muscle and most likely isn't against knocking her out or injuring her to take her wherever he was told to, cause let's face it, this guy is obviously all brawn and no brains, and she can't win in a fight against him.

She kicks him in the balls with her $300 Jimmy Choos, and head-butted him when he fell to his knees.

She stumbles back, swearing, and runs like a bat out of hell.

"They make it look so easy in the goddamn movies." She cries.

"Antonia!"

She skids to a halt and looks to where the voice of James came from. The scene that she sees makes her blood run cold and her stomach dropped like she was on a goddamn roller coaster.

James is on his knees, one hand on the floor to brace himself, the other on his stomach, which was covered in a suspicious red substance she'd rather not identify. And in front of him was the same guy she kicked in his family jewels, holding a gun.

Without thinking, she launched herself towards them. She slides in between his legs, and jumped up, right in front of the gun, and in between him and her lover.

Grabbing the gun, she points it upward so she wouldn't get shot, and puts pressure on a pressure point on his wrist

He yelped and dropped the gun. She punched him in the nose and then kneed him in the stomach.

Holding the gun to his head, she hisses, sounding like a rabid cat, _"Who do you work for?"_

In response, the man spits in her face.

Eyes blazing, jaw set, Antonia pulls the trigger.

His lifeless body falls to the ground with a dramatic _thump_. But Antonia notices nothing other than her lover, who is way too pale for comfort. She kneels next to his body and, trying not to panic, tries to recall the stuff they do in movies when someone gets shot.

_Pressure, _the voice of reason in her head says. _Put pressure on the wound._

"Right," She mutters out loud, and rips off a strip of her dress, not giving a single fuck that it was $700, and uses it to apply pressure to the wound.

"James, stay here, okay? Stay with me. You're not allowed to die. You just promised me forever, and you never break your promises." Her voice is thick with tears, and James stirs.

"That's it. Just stay awake a little while longer. Can you do that for me?"

James' eyes focus on her briefly, and his lips move, but she can't understand the garbled word that come out of his throat.

"Repeat that, sweetie. I didn't catch that." She leans down and sobs overcome her as she hears what he says.

"Lo-love … y-you. Always an-and f-forever."

Later, as the paramedics wheel away James' body, pronounced dead on scene, Antonia is still staring at the spot where he died, clutching the blanket they gave her around her bare shoulders.

A glint under the dust and debris catches her eye. She kneels and shifts the bits of wall to see what it was. Engraved on the inside are three words.

The same three words that will haunt her for the next seven years.

_Always and forever._


	2. Chapter 2

"Antonia, you can't keep living like this!"

Antonia looked up from the pieces of metal that she took from an old gun that her dad built. She was taking it apart to give her hands something to do. She already knew how it worked, and every detail that went into it.

"Leave me alone, Tara."

Tara Jensen nee Bradford, James' older sister, sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Antonia, please. It's been three months. James wouldn't want you to do this to yourself."

Antonia flinched and glared viciously at the redhead.

"I wouldn't know. He's not here, now is he?" Antonia said scathingly.

Tara's hazel eyes flashed. "That is not fair, and you know it."

"No, what's not fair is that James was killed because I pissed off the douchebag that tried to take my ass out. What's not fair is that I lost the most important person in my life. What's not fair is that you keep bugging me and bringing up James, and you don't understand!" Antonia jumped to her feet and stalked over to the wide-eyed redhead, poking her in the chest with every word. "How would you take it if Joel was killed because you pissed someone off, huh? How would you feel?" Antonia stopped and took a deep breath, then whispered the last part. "How would you feel if you lost the person you love more than life itself, and it was entirely your fault?"

Tara took a step back, unsure what to do as the inventor's eyes filled with tears. The brunette looked away as she composed herself, and then silently pointed to the door, sill not looking. Tara left, but paused at the door to turn back to the brunette.

"It wasn't your fault, you know. They would've killed him anyway. Do you honestly think he would've let that guy take you without a fight? If so, you're a fool, and you underestimated his love for you."

Without another word, Tara swept from the room, leaving Antonia to stare at her retreating back.

Antonia looked at the bottle of bourbon that was on her desk and grabbed a glass. As she went to pour some, she paused then ditched the glass, grabbing the bottle by the neck, and drinking until she stumbled back and fell on her ass in a chair.

The more she drank, the angrier she got. How dare he leave her alone, right after he proposed? He should have just run. But _no, _he had to be all _noble_ (stupid) and try to find her, make sure she was okay. And who did Tara think she was, telling her she underestimated his love for her? That's what made it worse; she knew he'd do it again in a heartbeat if he was given the chance. He'd give his life to protect her pathetic one. He had friends, family, people that loved him. What did she have? A few robots and an AI, that's what.

She stood up abruptly, so fast she almost went back down, and stormed to her room, tripping on the stairs, she'd swear they were moving and rearranging themselves like the ones in Harry Potter. When she got there, she ran into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it (she might've had a minor disagreement with the corner of doorjamb and her foot).

She looked in the mirror and examined her reflection. Long brown hair, with wild curls that never wanted to behave; pallid skin, slick with sweat; dull brown eyes, full of pain and grief and anger, framed by her dorky black glasses; and dark circles that showed how little she's been sleeping lately.

_"I love your long hair. It frames your beautiful face like a halo."_

She grabbed scissors from the drawer and started hacking off her hair. Lock by lock, her long hair fell to the floor in ringlets.

_"You look so cute with your glasses."_

She grabbed her glasses and snapped them at the bridge, then threw them at the wall. Pulling open another drawer, she grabbed her contacts she only wore at public events, like charity benefits and her disastrous birthday party, and put them in, blinking at the uncomfortable sensation.

_"You're so beautiful with no makeup on."_

She grabbed the makeup kit that she only uses every so often and put on mascara, eye shadow, lipstick, concealer, blush, and every other type of makeup in there.

_"Jeans, t-shirts, sneakers. Stick to them."_

She tore out of the bathroom and ran into her closet. Pushing the jeans and tee's out of the way, she grabbed a short dress (no sleeves or straps, just her boobs holding it up), sky blue with neon green netting over it, and light pink with yellow beading on her breasts, and put it on, with matching neon green and neon yellow 4 inch heels.

She then grabbed a bright yellow clutch and put her wallet in it along with her phone.

She looked in the mirror and smiled. The plastic smile she gave her mom, the one she gave Jarvis, the family butler that died in the same car crash that killed her parents (though he always saw through it), the same one she gives the paparazzi.

She looked like everything that James always hated, a girl that was so fake, Barbie was jealous. She loved it.

She went back to her workshop and grabbed her car keys.

"Text Rhodey, Tara, Joel, and Obie to call me Toni, with an I. And only Toni, not Antonia. And tell Obie that I want the position of CEO of Stark Industries. I'll start Monday. Meanwhile, pull up the blueprints to every weapon ever made and sold from Stark Industries. I'll look at them when I get back." She commanded JARVIS, her AI.

"Yes, ma'am." He said in a robotic voice that gave her the creeps. She really needed to fix that.

Antonia hopped in her Porsche 911and put the petal to the metal.

One hour and 17 shots of tequila later, Antonia was grinding on some nameless, faceless guy, the first guy to offer to buy her a drink.

He had his hands on her waist and was kissing her neck, licking the sweat that trailed down the valley between her breasts.

"Let's get out of here." He suggested in a husky voice.

Antonia nodded in agreement. This was what she needed, to feel wanted, to feel alive.

But as she stumbled out of the club with the nameless guy hanging off of her like an overgrown monkey, she wondered why it felt so wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

Seven Years Later …

Toni Stark was in her workshop, working on some advanced arrows for Clint, who kept complaining that the aim was off. He had almost torn her a new one when she suggested it wasn't the arrows, but rather him.

Holding the shiny arrow close to her face, she inspected it for any imperfections, looking at it from every angle with a critical eye, before moving on to the rest.

Satisfied that there was nothing wrong with any of them, she took the elevator upstairs to the penthouse where the team was watching a movie, as JARVIS so helpfully told her.

As the doors opened, everyone turned to look at her. JARVIS paused the movie.

"Hey, Bird Face, where is your bow? I need it." Toni asked, walking over to him where he was perched on the back of an armchair. How he managed that, she would never know.

"My room. Why?" He asked suspiciously.

She was already walking back to the elevator. "To make sure that the new arrows work. It's safer if I test it out before you use it in a battle. What if it backfires and blows up in your face? Which there is like a 3.7% chance of that happening, but better safe than sorry, right?" She stepped into the elevator, but told JARVIS to keep it open for a moment.

"Wait, you know how to use a bow and arrow?" Rodgers asked incredulously.

Toni stopped and looked at him with narrowed eyes, but carefully kept the rest of her face blank.

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that, Cap?" Her teeth were clenched, and her left hand, the one that was out of sight, was clenched into a fist, nails biting into her palm and knuckles white.

"No. Of course not. How come you never mentioned it before?"

What she wanted to say was _why, so you can find another reason to tell me how narcissistic I am? _

Instead, all she said was "It never came up," and before she could tell JARVIS to close the doors, Thor, who was sitting next to Loki (Long story short, he was being controlled by some psycho named Thanos who wanted revenge for being cast out and having his power taken and _blah, blah, blah._ She didn't pay attention to the rest, just told him which floor was his and went back to her workshop.), spoke up.

"Lady of Iron, can we come watch you demonstrate your abilities?"

Toni's plastic smile became just a little bit strained.

_Crap._ She thought, trying to think of a way out of this.

"Uhm, well, actually." She floundered for a second, then a light bulb came on over her head (Not really, but that'd be really cool). "I'm testing to make sure it doesn't explode before it's supposed to. Not really demonstrating anything. You guys can finish your movie."

She hissed under her breath to JARVIS to close the doors.

"Well, we should be there in case you get injured."

Rodgers put his hand in between the doors before they closed, making Toni sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. "So close…" She muttered under her breath.

"Fine. Go to the archery, I have to get the arrows and bow."

She pushed his hand out of the way of the doors, which was quite a feat with her being 5'6", and the doors closed on his surprised face. Toni banged her head against the wall a couple of time, chastening herself for letting them know about her archery skills.

By the time she got to the archery, the Avengers plus Loki were sitting in the room in the back of the archery, the wall separating the two rooms was tempered glass, which if broken, explodes into harmless .5"x.5"x.5" cubes.

Toni looked at the team, who was gazing back at her expectantly.

Bruce was curious, watching with fascination; Rodgers was staring with a weird surprised/annoyed look on his face; Natasha was indifferent, with maybe a slight amount of interest in her eyes; Clint was just staring in surprise; Thor was excited; and Loki was staring at her with an unreadable look on his face. He did that a lot.

Toni rolled her eyes at them, but put the bow and arrows on the floor, and took off her leather jacket, showing her dark blue tank top, which was bunched up at the top.

She grabbed the bow and put an arrow in it, holding it there for a second. When James taught her to do this, he said to keep her hand leveled with her mouth, so she did just that and aimed for the bullseye on the other side of the room. She took a deep breath and released.

The arrow hit the center, unsurprisingly, for her anyway, and they all clapped and cheered.

But Toni wasn't paying attention to them. Her eyes narrowed and, ignoring them, she walked up the arrow. She didn't activate the explosive, so it shouldn't explode. But it was blinking red and beeping. Never a good sign.

Her eyes widened and she turned and ran towards the door, cursing her 3 inch heels, but before she got even three steps-

BOOM!

Toni flew into a wall, coughing and gasping, choking on the smoke, her eyes blank and staring as she went back seven years to her 21st birthday party.

_Oh God, James! No, don't die! You can't, you can't leave me!_

"Toni!"

_No, James run! Don't look for me, I'll be fine!_

"Toni!"

_I love you, please, please! Why didn't you run?!_

"Toni!" A stinging sensation on her cheek brought her back to the present where the Avengers plus Loki were all staring at her with worry.

She blinked a few times, and brought her hand up to her cheek where Bruce had slapped her, feeling wetness on her skin.

Her eyes widened in horror. Oh dear God, was she _crying?!_

She stumbled to her feet and bolted out of the room, ignoring Bruce's frantic calls.

She locked herself in her workshop, locking the door and ordering JARVIS to override Bruce's and Pepper's access codes. Then had JARVIS run a scan on the arrows and look into the security footage to see if anyone was in the tower, specifically the workshop, that shouldn't have been there. Then she made a phone call to her good friend, Bruce Wayne.

"There has to be a reason for this. Never, had this happened to me before. And there is no way that I made a mistake on those arrows, and even if I had, JARVIS would have told me! He's a goddamn supercomputer, for Christ's sake!"

Toni fell back in her chair, taking a deep breath, waiting for Bruce to respond.

"Maybe someone somehow got in there and rigged it. Someone who wants Barton dead." He offered, and she sighed.

"No, I test out everything that Stark Industries produces, even when we manufactured weapons! Either I tested them out myself or was at the demonstration to make sure everything went smoothly. Why do you think I was in Afghanistan when I got kidnapped? If, and this is a _big_ if, someone somehow got past JARVIS, which I really doubt, they were targeting me. And if someone did, why not poison my coffee or something? I mean, quick and easy, and almost positive that I die."

"They probably want to make it seem like an accident, so no one gets suspected."

Toni rubbed her temples.

"No, Pepper would know it wasn't an accident. She knows that I test everything, and I never make a mistake with things this critical."

"Well, that makes things interesting, doesn't it?" The voice that spoke next was not Bruce, and Toni whipped around, grabbing a gun from under her desk and pointing it at the intruder.

She came face to face with none other than the God of Mischief, who looked fairly surprised at having a gun pointed at his head.

She lowered the gun. "I'll have to call you back. If you hear anything, call."

Bruce made a noise of acknowledgement and hung up.

Toni tossed her phone on her desk and put the gun back in the holder under her desk.

"JARVIS, why didn't you tell me he was here?" Toni asked, glaring at the ceiling.

"He just got there, ma'am. You realised before I could say anything."

She scoffed and looked at Loki, who was staring at her with that damn unreadable expression again.

"What do you want, Loki? I have things to do, people to call, protocols to put in order."

"Believe it or not, Banner sent me to make sure you were okay, said you might have a concussion. He wanted me to teleport him in, but I didn't think you'd like that."

"Oh," She said, surprised. That was unusually thoughtful from the God of Mischief. "Well, you were correct. Thank you. And I'm fine."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Then why did you pull a gun on me? You've never done that before in all the times I've been in here." He pointed out.

_Damn, _she exhaled.

"Why do you care? Just go tell Jolly Green that I'm fine." Toni turned and went to grab her glass, but it disappeared before she could get a proper grip on it.

"Hey!"

She whipped around to glare at the smirking god, who was holding the glass innocently as if he hadn't just taken her _very _expensive scotch.

She then sighed again (She seemed to be doing that a lot lately) and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Keep it. Just get out; I have things to do, like figure out who wants me dead, and how the hell they got in here."

She spun around in her chair. "JARVIS, pull up the security footage of the shop from the time I left to go to the penthouse to the time when I came back to get the arrows."

"Yes, ma'am."

In front of her, a screen came up, showing her leaving the shop. Time: 6:46 PM.

She fast forwards, looking for anything abnormal, while grabbing the bottle of scotch and taking a sip.

Approximately fifteen minutes after she left, she notices that in the corner of the screen, there is a slight distortion right where the arrows are sitting. It was only there for a second; hardly long enough to notice, but it was there.

Putting the half-empty bottle down, that was full when she started, she had JARVIS rewind, pause, and zoom in, clearing out any distortions to get a clearer image.

"JARVIS, what does that look like to you?"

There was a pause and when the AI spoke, confirming her suspicions, there was a note of surprise in his normally calm voice. It was a human face. The skin color was a little darker than hers, making him look like a suburban surfer. He had black hair, and startling bright blue eyes. There were almost exactly the same color of Clint's eyes when Loki was controlling him with his Glow Stick of Destiny.

But there was something inhuman about him, the way his head was positioned, the look in his eyes that made him seem like he wasn't completely human. It was giving her the creeps just looking at it.

"JARVIS, run a facial recognition scan in every system you're connected to. SHEILD, the CIA, the FBI, the DOD-" She paused. "Actually every intelligence agency in the world, regardless of nationality. Meanwhile, email Bruce the footage and a snapshot of this … guy's face."

"Done, Miss Stark. It will take him a little while to respond, in the meantime, I would suggest going upstairs so Dr. Banner may look at your injuries as you have a mild concussion and a bruised rib."

Toni rubbed a hand down her face and nodded. "Fine. I want you to make sure Protocol six-six-SAFE-nine-eight is ready to go at a moment's notice. I have a bad feeling about this."

After the AI confirmed this, she went to her private elevator and told JARVIS to take her to the floor Bruce was on. She was starting to feel dizzy and her head was spinning, so she slid down the wall, trying to ignore the nausea that was curled in her stomach.

Her head lolled to the side, and the only thing she was aware of was the coolness of the tile floor she was sitting on. Dimly, she heard JARVIS's voice, telling her to try to stay awake, which was weird, considering he normally told her to try to go to sleep instead.

"G'night JARVIS." She mumbles, the words coming out garbled.

The last thing she was aware of was a soothing touch on her neck. Bruce.

AN: I haven't seen any of the Batman movies. Like ever. So you'll have to forgive me if Bruce seems OOC. I put him in because I thought she needed a friend that she could trust, since she doesn't completely trust the Avengers. If you can tell me how he is, personality wise, feel free to PM me or comment, and I will most definitely fix it! :)


	4. Chapter 4

Bruce Banner was in his lab, working on a cure for arthritis, and was fairly startled when he heard JARVIS's voice.

"Dr. Banner, would you please go to the elevator? Miss Stark is semi-conscious in it on the floor."

Bruce was already out of his seat and halfway to the elevator by the time the AI was done speaking.

As the elevator doors dinged open, he stumbled in and fell to his knees, putting a hand to her throat to check for a pulse. When he got one, he picked her up bridal style and told JARVIS to take him to the medical wing, and to tell the team to meet him there.

As the elevator moved, JARVIS informed him that Toni had a mild concussion and a bruised rib, and she had drunk half a bottle of scotch after the incident.

The usually mild-mannered doctor cussed, and when the elevator opened he went in the direction of the medical wing where he met Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Loki.

"Whoa, what happened to her?" Clint asked, staring at Toni in alarm.

As Bruce had JARVIS fill the others in, he put her on a twin-sized mattress. He immediately grabbed the necessary supplies to tape up her rib.

Thor burst in, declaring loudly, "I am sorry, comrades. Lady Darcy was telling me the most interesting story about-"

Loki cut him off.

"We do not need details, Thor. Lady Iron is hurt and you jabbering away like a nitwit aren't helping in the least."

Thor looked visibly crestfallen but fell silent.

Clint, who was conversing quietly with Natasha, looked up and asked "Why did she freak out when the arrow exploded earlier? I don't think it was just the arrow malfunctioning. She was panicking, man."

Steve nodded in agreement.

Bruce pursed his lips but stayed silent, not knowing why Toni panicked either.

Loki spoke up. "When I went in her workshop earlier, she was talking to some man about how she believes that the arrow was tampered with when she came down here to get Barton's bow."

Natasha's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Someone got past JARVIS and up to her shop without getting noticed? Impossible. As much as I hate to admit it, Stark's security system is the best I've ever encountered, including SHEILD."

Bruce was interested in something else the trickster said. "Who was she talking to?" It couldn't be Pepper because he said "man". Happy, maybe? Or Rhodey?

"I do not know. She did not mention any names."

"JARVIS, who was she talking to?" Bruce asked, sitting on the edge of the cot.

"My apologizes, Dr. Banner. My protocols do not allow me to disclose that information to you."

Bruce's eyes widened in shock. Toni gave him access to almost everything, from what powers her arc reactor to the color of her panties.

"Would Pepper have access to that information?" He asked the AI.

JARVIS replied in a tone that only Toni would recognize as cautious. "I'm afraid not, Dr. Banner."

Natasha raised her eyebrows, stunned. "Pepper doesn't have access to that?"

They all exchanged looks.

"Well, we can grill Toni later. She needs rest and if we bombard her with questions the second she wakes up, it won't be good for anyone. So, scram! I'll have JARVIS tell you if anything happens." Bruce shooed them away.

With minimal grumbling, the team shuffled out of the door, going back to what they were doing originally.

Bruce sat on the edge of the bed by Toni's head, turning her head from side to side, moving her hair to look at her head.

"What are you up to, Toni?" He murmured.

After checking to make sure that she wasn't going to kneel over, he stood up and walked to the elevator, got in and, after instructing JARVIS to inform him if her condition changed, went to Toni's workshop to see if he could get any clues as to who meddled with Clint's arrows.

The reinforced steel door slid open almost silently apart from a low, menacing hissing noise.

First, he checked her desk, but found nothing of interest apart from a file that read 'Bradford, James' a crossed it in bold, red letters.

He picked it up, frowning. It puzzled him, as to why she'd have a paper file. Toni was very technologically inclined, doing everything on computers, tablets, holograms, phones…

Opening it, he observed a picture of a young man, looking to be in his mid-twenties, with bright green eyes, dirty blond hair, and a dazzling smile.

Before he could get farther than that, however, he heard a throat getting cleared with a quiet "Ahem" in front of him.

Looking up in alarm, guilt crashed over him like a tidal wave. She had given him a safe place to stay, was his friend and didn't fear him, and he just goes through her personal files? What kind of friend was he?

"Toni, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

She cut him off with a disarming smile. "No worries, Big Guy."

She waltzed behind him, subtly taking the file and putting it in a secret vault under her desk that was disguised as a mini fridge.

"So, why'd you come down to my lair, Doc?"

"Err, I was – I mean, I just – Loki said-" Bruce floundered for an excuse.

She raised an elegant eyebrow in confusion. "_Loki _said? And what, pray tell, did Loki say?"

Dr. Banner's face flushed. "Um, well, he said he heard you talking to a guy about someone breaking in and sabotaging the arrows and I wanted to know who and-"

Bruce was rambling to the best of his ability and wished Toni would put him out of his misery already. And Toni, feeling merciful, did just that.

"You could've just asked." She said, looking amused.

He blushed to the tips of his ears. Changing the subject before he could humiliate himself further, he asked, with genuine concern, "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine, fit as a fiddle." Bruce, thankfully, didn't notice the lie and inquired about what happened in the archery.

She paused for a split second. "Just a really bad memory. Nothing to worry about." Smiling winningly, she sat on a bench, picking up a piece of metal randomly. "Huh, I forgot about this."

"Toni, it seemed pretty serious. What memory was it that causes a reaction like that? Was it Afghanistan?" He asked softly.

Her defenses shot up, but she pushed them roughly to the side. This was _Bruce_, her friend who she could confide in. _Yeah, if you trust him so much, why don't you tell him about James, huh? Or about _you_? About how much of a freak you are?_

Ignoring the nagging, insistent voice that seemed to always be right, she spoke in a quiet voice, so quiet, in fact, that Bruce had to strain to hear.

"When I was younger, I was dating a man named James Bradford. I had known him for a long time by the day we started dating. We were so happy; he made me feel like a little girl when I was with him. He helped me cope when my mother and father died. He helped me embrace who I am.

"But on my twenty-first birthday, everything was shot to hell. We were dancing, and he had gotten down on one knee, holding a little black box. He asked me to marry him, to become his." Here, she paused. Bruce could do nothing other than stare in quiet horror at his teary-eyed friend. After a minute, she smiled ruefully at him and continued taking.

"But before I could answer, there was an explosion and we were separated. I was attack by a big _dick_, which I took care of quite effectively, or so I thought. When I finally found James, he was being held at gunpoint by the gorilla that had assaulted me. James had been hurt and was on the ground, clutching his wound. I-" She faltered, then coughed lightly. "Uh, I killed him. But the damage was done, and by the time the paramedics got there, he was dead."

Bruce was speechless. He knew that she had a horrifying past, they all did, but he never expected this. He could feel the Other Guy beating at the mental wall Bruce had carefully constructed to keep him in check, trying to get out and _smashsmashsmash _the puny humans who dared to bring so much pain to his friend.

When the engineer sniffed, he walked over to her and put his arms around her, bringing her face to his chest. Her thin, lean frame shook with the force of the sobs ripping free from her throat.

"Shh, it's okay, Toni. Shhh, it's over. You're fine," He rocked her, mumbling meaningless words of comfort to the woman in his arms who looked for all the world like a lost little girl.

After a few minutes of this, Toni pulled herself together. She sniffed and wiped her eyes, relatively glad she had decided to forgo the mascara today.

"Sorry," she mouthed, looking to the floor in shame.

"Hey, Toni, it's okay to cry. We all have our moments. Hell, I think even Thor was crying the other day when you ran out of pop tarts." His feeble attempt at humor worked, as her lips pulled up at the corners.

Toni clapped. "Well then. You wanna see what I got on my little visitor?"

Bruce nodded his head. "How do you think they got in?"

She paused. "Nothing for certain, but I have a few ideas I need to explore first."

Before Bruce could question her about her ideas, she pulled up the footage and had him observe it from a medical point of view.

She went into the bathroom and pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed a number.

"Hello?" The familiar, warm voice answered.

"Hello, Professor."

"Toni?" She could hear the surprise and delight in his voice. "Is that you?"

"The one and only."

Hearing his amused chuckle pulled even more memories to the surface, but she pushed them down stubbornly.

"I need your help."

She heard him waver. "Well, I'm not sure what you need my help for, but I'll definitely help if I can. What can I do for you?"

"Someone tried to kill me."

"What?! What happened? Are you okay?" The raw concern in his voice warmed her heart, just a little.

"I'm fine, Charles. Someone subverted an arrow I was testing for Hawkeye today. Whoever it was got past my security effortlessly."

"While that is a point of concern, I fail to see how I could help you in any way, shape or form."

"I think it was a mutant that compromised the arrow."

A/N: Sorry this took me so long. I have the attention span of a goldfish and my interests change almost daily. My new thing is Sherlock Holmes. Anyway, I decided to add the X-Men cause I find the concept of Toni being a mutant cool. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait to see her gift. Review if you want her to have a specific power and I'll consider it.


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